A review by titus_hjelm
The Elven by James A. Sullivan, Bernhard Hennen

2.0

1,5 stars perhaps? Starting with a chapter-long battle scene does not bode well for a book (in my books, ahem), but it gets a bit better afterwards. The main energy in this book seems to have been spent in creating the world, which is not bad. But good fantasy doesn't hang on world-building alone. The characters remain distant, the three main male characters developing some kind of personalities, but everyone else--including all the women--are just extras. Most disturbingly, in several scenes someone dies and everyone is very sad, but the reader/listener cannot really connect with the feeling as these folks almost appear out of nowhere. Also, I would be lying if I said I was always on track which year it was and what was happening. The plot, despite a promising beginning, descends into quite standard abc quest. I was going to give this two stars, but the multiple-chapter battle scenes in the end were so boring that 1,5 really is more accurate.